Prayagraj

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Prayagraj
Hindi प्रयागराज
Urdu پریاگراج
Prayagraj (India)
Red pog.svg
State : IndiaIndia India
State : Uttar Pradesh
District : Prayagraj
Location : 25 ° 27 '  N , 81 ° 52'  E Coordinates: 25 ° 27 '  N , 81 ° 52'  E
Height : 100 m
Area : 70.05 km²
Residents : 1,168,385 (2011)
Population density : 16,679 inhabitants / km²
Website : prayagraj.nic.in
Structures in Prayagraj
Structures in Prayagraj

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Prayagraj ( Hindi प्रयागराज , Urdu پریاگراج; Prayāgrāj [ prʌˈjɑːɡrɑːdʒ ]), officially until October 2018 Allahabad ( Hindi इलाहाबाद , Urdu الہ آباد Ilāhābād [ ɪlɑːhɑːˈbɑːd ]), is a city ​​of millions ( Municipal Corporation ) in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh . The city is the administrative seat of the Prayagraj District and the Allahabad Division . At Prayagraj the Ganges , India's largest river, and its most important tributary, the Yamuna, come together . According to a mythical Hindu idea, there is a third, invisible river - the Sarasvati ; the city is therefore often called Triveni Sangam ("union of three rivers"). Prayagraj is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites and every twelve years the venue for the Kumbh Mela , which is considered the largest religious festival in the world.

Surname

Station sign with the (old) name of the city in Hindi, English and Urdu (2012)

The name Prayagraj , which has been official since 2018, is derived from the old Sanskrit name Prayag or Prayaga ( प्रयाग ), which means "place of sacrifice". The name Prayag is mainly used by Hindus today in a religious context. The addition -raj, "king" (cf. Raja ) refers to the status of Prayag as the proverbial "king of pilgrimage sites". The name Allahabad (actually Ilahabad ) was given to the city by the Mughal emperor Akbar I in 1583 during the Islamic period . It comes from Persian , the court language of the Mughal Empire, and means "City of God" (cf. Ilah and -abad ).

On the part of nationalist Hindu forces had been demanded for some time, Allahabad rückzubenennen officially in Prayag. An attempt to change the name in 2001 during the government of Chief Minister Rajnath Singh ( Bharatiya Janata Party , BJP) was unsuccessful. After the BJP won an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2018, the government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath pulled these old plans out of the drawer. On October 16, 2018, the city was officially named Prayagraj . While in the past numerous Indian cities were renamed for anti-colonial or regionalist motives (e.g. Bombay in Mumbai , Calcutta in Kolkata, or Madras in Chennai ), the renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj was considerably more controversial because of its anti-Muslim undertones.

location

Prayagraj is located at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers at an altitude of approx. 100 m above sea level. d. The Doab between Ganges and Yamuna begins west of Prayagraj, the Awadh (formerly Oudh ) region begins to the north, and the historic Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand regions to the south . The Grand Trunk Road , the most important east-west road link in northern India, runs through the city ; the city also has a national airport (IATA code: IXD) and is connected to the Indian rail network. The Indian capital Delhi is located approx. 700 km (driving distance) northwest; Calcutta is a good 800 km southeast. The climate is warm; Rain falls almost exclusively in the monsoon months , which usually last from July to September.

population

The sustained increase in urban population is mainly due to the immigration of families from the surrounding area.

year 1991 2001 2011
Residents 792.858 1.018.092 1,168,385

A good 76% of the population are Hindus and just under 22% are Muslims ; other religions such as Christianity , Sikhism , Jainism and Buddhism form splinter groups. The city is nevertheless the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Allahabad and the diocese of Lucknow of the Anglican Methodist Church of North India . The proportion of the male population is almost 18% higher than the female population, which on the one hand is not uncommon in northern India because of the high abortion rate among girls, but on the other hand is also related to the influx of male workers from the rural areas in the hinterland. One speaks Hindi and Urdu as well as English and regional language Awadhi are widespread.

economy

The area around Prayagraj, especially the Doab, is largely agricultural; Traders, craftsmen and service providers of all kinds are based in the city itself. In the last few decades, smaller industrial companies have also emerged. Pilgrimage traffic is also important.

history

Historical view of Fort Allahabad (around 1850)

The confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers has long been considered a sacred place. Under its old name Prayag , Prayagraj is already mentioned in works of ancient Indian literature such as the Mahabharata epic or the legal text Manusmriti . The oldest structure in Prayagraj is an Ashoka column from the 3rd century BC. BC, which stands today in Fort Allahabad. An inscription of the Gupta ruler Samudra Gupta is preserved from the 4th century AD . The Chinese Xuanzang (Hsüan Tsang), who came to India as a Buddhist pilgrim in the 7th century, visited Prayag and described the city as an important Hindu sanctuary.

In 1194 Prayag was conquered by Muhammad von Ghur and came under the Muslim rule of the Sultanate of Delhi . The Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) had the Fort Allahabad built in the years after 1583 , renamed Prayag to Allahabad and made the city the capital of a province of the Mughal Empire . Akbar's son Selim, who later became emperor Jahangir (ruled 1605–1627), served as governor in Allahabad before his accession to the throne. With the fall of the Mughal Empire, Allahabad changed hands several times in the 18th century. In 1764 the British established a garrison in Allahabad. In 1801 the Nawab of Oudh ceded the city to the British East India Company , so that Allahabad finally came under British colonial rule.

In 1857 Allahabad took part in the Great Revolt against the British. After its suppression, the British made Allahabad the capital of the Northwestern Provinces (from 1902 United Provinces of Agra and Oudh ). In 1920 the capital was moved to Lucknow . After Indian independence in 1947, Allahabad came to the state of Uttar Pradesh .

Attractions

Tomb Khusrau in Khusrau Bagh
All Saints Cathedral

The main attraction of Prayagraj is the Triveni Sangam because of its religious significance . In addition, the city has a number of architectural monuments from both the Mughal period and the era of British rule.

  • The most important building from the Islamic period is Fort Allahabad , located at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers , the construction of which was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1583 and was completed over 45 years later. Inside the fort is the Ashoka Column from 232 BC. As well as two important Hindu shrines: the Patalpur temple and the sacred banyan tree Akshaya Vat , from which - according to legend - numerous believers threw themselves to their deaths in order to achieve a state of redemption . Most of the fort is now used by the Indian armed forces and is therefore not open to the public.
  • Another example of Indo-Islamic architecture in Prayagraj is the Khusrau-Bagh . In the walled garden near the Prayagraj Junction train station are the 17th-century tombs of Khusrau Mirzas , the eldest son of Emperor Jahangir , as well as his mother and sister.
  • A number of representative buildings from the 19th century date from the British period. These include the All Saints Cathedral , built in Victorian neo-Gothic style in 1887 , while the Allahabad High Court building (1916) and some of the University of Allahabad's buildings such as Muir College (1874) or the Allahabad Public Library (1864) reflect the indo- Saracen mixed style represented.
  • Furthermore, one of the sights of Prayagraj is the Anand Bhavan , the former home of the Nehru Gandhi family from Prayagraj . The property located on the northeastern outskirts was founded by Motilal Nehru (1861–1931). In 1970, Indira Gandhi gave the Anand Bhavan to the Indian government, which turned it into a museum. The Jawahar Planetarium has been located in the garden of Anand Bhavan since 1979.
  • The Allahabad Museum presents a large number of archaeological and other exhibits from the history of India.

Religious meaning

Crowds at the 2001 Kumbh Mela

As the site of the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, both of which are considered sacred rivers in Hinduism, Prayagraj has great religious significance. Therefore, Prayagraj is an important Hindu pilgrimage site and is nicknamed Tirth Raj , "King of the Pilgrimage Sites ".

Every twelve years in January / February, a large religious festival, the Kumbh Mela , takes place here at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, the Triveni Sangam . The cities of Prayagraj, Nashik , Ujjain and Haridwar hold the Kumbh Mela alternately every three years, i.e. every twelve years. The festival in Allahabad is particularly sacred. The last Kumbh Mela in Allahabad took place from January 14th to March 10th 2013. Six years after the actual Kumbh Mela (most recently in 2007), the “half Kumbh mela” ( Ardh Kumbh Mela ) is celebrated, and the smaller Magh Mela is celebrated every year in Allahabad .

The Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj is considered the largest religious festival in the world: in 2013 it was attended by an estimated 90-100 million people over a period of 55 days. On the main day alone, 35 million gathered for the bath in the Ganges. Despite an enormous number of security forces, incidents keep coming back. In 2013, 36 people died in a mass panic at the Allahabad train station. An estimated 60–70 million pilgrims came to Prayagraj for the 2007 Ardh Kumbh Mela. In contrast, “only” five million people are expected at the annual Magh Mela.

education

Muir College in the University of Allahabad

Prayagraj is the seat of three state universities: The University of Allahabad was founded during the British colonial era in 1887 as the fourth university in India. Today it is one of the 25 federal universities ( Central Universities ) that are directly supported by the Indian state. The Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) was founded in 1961 and is part of the network of 30 National Institutes of Technology in India. The Indian Institute of Information Technology (Allahabad) (IIIT-A) was founded in 1999 and specializes in information technology and computer science. In 1966 the Harish-Chandra Research Institute was founded. It offers around 80 study places in physics and mathematics.

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Commons : Allahabad  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Allahabad - Census 2011
  2. ↑ Monier Monier-Williams: Sanskrit-English Dictionary , p. 687 , keyword "प्रयाग prayāga".
  3. ^ Knut A. Jacobsen: Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition. Salfivic Space, London: Routledge, 2013, p. 36.
  4. ↑ Rename Allahabad as Prayag, Yogi Adityanath's minister writes to UP Governor. indiatoday.in, July 9, 2018, accessed November 8, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Yogi Adityanath cabinet passes resolution to rename Allahabad to Prayagraj. The New Indian Express, October 16, 2018, accessed October 16, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Sabarimala: BJP's Hindutva distractions are harming India's national interest. scroll.in, November 11, 2018, accessed on May 5, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Allahabad - Map with altitude information
  8. ↑ Allahabad - climate tables
  9. ↑ Not to be confused with the eponymous Roman Catholic diocese of Lucknow , which, unlike the diocese of the Church of North India, has its seat in the eponymous city.
  10. ↑ Allahabad - Census 2011
  11. ↑ Allahabad - economy etc.
  12. ↑ Allahabad Museum - photos + information
  13. ↑ The Hindu, March 11, 2013: "Maha Kumbh Mela concludes".
  14. ^ The Hindu, February 12, 2013: "Allahabad stampede toll 36".
  15. ↑ BBC News, January 3, 2007: "Millions bathe at Hindu festival"; The Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2007: Millions of Hindus Wash Away Their Sins.
  16. ↑ Times of India, December 21, 2010: "Thee sniffer dog squads for Magh Mela"